Rodney Frelinghuysen: “on Friday, September 6 of 2002, before a commemorative joint meeting of Congress at Federal Hall in New York City, the…”

“on Friday, September 6 of 2002, before a commemorative joint meeting of Congress at Federal Hall in New York City, the then poet laureate of the United States, Billy Collins, dedicated the following poem to the victims and survivors of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The poem was called ``The Names,'' and I would like to read it: ``I lay awake in the palm of the night. A soft rain stole in, unhelped by any breeze, and when I saw the silver glaze on the windows, I started with A, with Ackerman, as it happened, then Baxter and Calabro, Davis and Eberling, names falling into place as droplets fell through the dark. Names printed on the ceiling of the night. Names slipping around a watery bend. Twenty-six willows on the banks of a stream. ``In the morning, I walked barefoot among thousands of flowers, heavy with dew like the eyes of tears, and each had a name: Fiori inscribed on a yellow petal, then Gonzalez and Han, Ishikawa and Jenkins. Names written in the air and stitched into the cloth of the day. A name under a photograph taped to a mailbox. Monogram on a torn shirt, I see you spelled out on storefront windows and on the bright unfurled awnings of the city. ``I say the syllables as I turn a corner: Kelly and Lee, Medina, Nardella, and O'Connor. When I peer into the woods, I see a thick tangle where letters are hidden as in a puzzle concocted for children.…”